At our local branch of the library, there are two long shelves that are usually filled with board books (we only read board books because someone has a tendency to tear the pages of regular books - I won't name names here). Since the summer reading program began, the two shelves are only about a quarter filled. Which means Columbus is reading this summer! 

This got me thinking about pumpkin's favorite books...because I was wondering, can I count the same book more than once for the contest since she makes me read them ten times a day? (I decided to only count each book once, regardless of how many times I have read it that day.) Here is a list of some of her current favorites:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Amazing Baby: Night-Night, Baby! by A. Wood 
Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Jane Dyer
Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann 
That's Not My Puppy: Its Coat Is Too Hairy by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss and Theodor Seuss Geisel 
The Going to Bed Book and Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton 
Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth and Laura Huliska-Beith 
You're My Little Love Bug by Heidi R. Weimer 

What is your little one's favorite book?

[Photo Credit: Book]

Eric Carle's collage-style illustrations are always a treat. This is the classic story of a hungry little caterpillar, the unusual stuff he eats, and his transformation into a butterfly at the end. You'll read this over and over.

Gratitude—it’s a gift that small children still value, yet somewhere along the way consumerism seems to seep in corrupt this still pool of satisfaction. I noticed this while reading a selection of new Mother’s Day books from HarperCollins. They desperately addressed the same issue: Mom doesn’t really want something for Mother’s day. What she longed for the most was love and appreciation.

In Daine de Groat’s book, Mother, You’re the Best! (But Sister, You’re a Pest!), Gilbert the opossum searches for just the right Mother’s Day gift. In this hardback picture book designed for ages 3-8, Gilbert’s little sister Lola keeps upstaging him. In the end, his quest to keep his sister preoccupied turns out to be the perfect gift. This adorable book not only suggests that the best Mother’s Day gifts are free, but address sibling rivalry as well.

Another humorous Mother’s Day picture book, T. Rex and the Mother’s Day Hug by Lois G. Grambling, pokes fun at the bigger is better mentality that tends to get so many of us in trouble. As T. Rex considers his gift giving options, his mother assures him that a big hug is more than enough. But T. Rex wants to do MORE: a strategy that hasn’t really worked out for him in the past. Although T. Rex goes overboard yet again, in the end he manages to get it just right.

However, the mother themed picture book favored by my three-year-old daughter was a cherished classic: Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? (Spanish Edition). This fabulous book features Eric Carle’s timeless illustrations and embraces the simple premise that everyone has a mother giving young readers a moment to reflect on what it means to have a mother.

And that’s all we really want—to be appreciated. As I was writing this post today, my daughter woke up and brought me a simple card and gave me a big hug and kiss. Jewelers will tell you we deserve diamonds, florists will recommend flowers, and connectionists will tell you we crave chocolates, but gratitude is the greatest gift of all—both for the giver and recipient. Although we do deserve diamonds (about 270,000 dollars worth each year), love is priceless.

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My family and I are off for a long weekend in Western and Central Massachusetts. This trip will include stops at tons of places I find inspiring. Among them is the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I visited the museum just after it opened and I fell in love. I have been dying to share the museum with my husband and little girl. The exhibits are lovely and there is also "the studio" where children and adults can make their own art project based on one of the exhibits currently on display. Last time I was there it was creating a collage with Dutch imagery. This weekend we can "create a collage using positive and negative space."

I also plan to visit Essentials, various antique barns, and the home of Baba Reens and the egg dance. I am so excited I could plotz!

I have been promised home baked cookies and a craft night - woohoo!

As tempting as it is to bring my laptop in order to stay connected, I am refraining because we are bringing:

• One suitcase
• One of the extra-huge LL Bean Boat n' Tote bags
• One craft carrier
• One camera bag
• One Pack n' Play
• One stroller
• One car seat (we don't own a car so this counts as luggage because we have to install it in the rental before we go)

Besides, as much as I enjoy crafting and blogging, a girl has got to unplug every so often...

This is, by far, the coolest thing I've made for Sam. It's fun, educational, and really, really easy to make. The characters got a bit tedious, but it paid off in the end. Plus, you can find great pieces for different stories off of Ebay and Etsy too, I'm sure. In fact, we just ordered a "5 Little Monkeys Swinging From a Tree" set for 5 buckaroos.

Materials needed:

*Particle board - 99 cents at hardware store

*Felt - at Wal-Mart you can ALWAYS find felt and/or flannel (they both work well) material in the clearance bin. They also have very cheap pre-cut 8x10 pieces to get more color for cheap without having to buy a yard.

*Material scissors and paper scissors

*Hot glue gun w/extra glue

*Regluar kid's glue

*Crayons/markers/color printer

*Cardboard - I just used old boxes

*Paintbrush

*Fine sandpaper

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I literally, as you can see, just glued the felt onto the particle board with a glue gun and the board was done. Then I cut out a makeshift (though not perfect) alphabet, some shapes, a few flowers and trees, etc. I made sure that all of the letters in Samuel D were in one color to make it easier to find his name spelled out. And he was ready to play. Later on I printed out a bunch of templates found here and colored them in. You can also make up your own from a story you know and use a Google image search, but I'm less creative than some and need structured craft ideas. I colored the pages, cut them out, and then painted glue over every last inch of paper on the backand laid it out on cardboard. Once that was dry I cut out the cardboard as carefully as I could in order to retain the shape. Hot glue the sandpaper to the back and you have characters that stick to the board. I originally had planned to laminate the characters and pictures, but when I took the stuff to Kinko's it was $1.99 for just one sheet. And that's not frugal. I actually think I like this better, anyway, because Sam has something large and chunky to hold onto. *Note: If you use heavy sandpaper it will pill the felt on the board. I used super thin sandpaper.

To play with this sometimes Sam will do alone pretend play, sometimes we will do other fun things like have the animals/people be friends and do imagination play that way. Mostly I read a story, as in Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle with all the animals laid out and have him find the animal we are talking about and put it on the board. Sam knows all of the colors and I think it's primarily due to this game.

Have fun. I LOVE bringing out the felt board. Especially on rainy days!

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Kate’s paintings are reminiscent of Eric Carle, but instead of the use of scissors to create an object, Kate uses thousands of torn papers making a soft, textured mosaic of simple images for babies and toddlers. Tentatively titled, A is for Apple, these twenty-six hand-crafted pieces showcase the alphabet like you have never seen before.

Here is a sneak peek of an illustration from the upcoming children’s book from Kate Chaplin

The Classic straight-sided baby cup by Lunt Silversmiths is made entirely of sterling silver, and includes a gift box. Lunt Silversmiths that represent a tradition of more than 100 years of silversmithing, comes this infant feeding spoon in one of Lunt’s first silverware patterns, Eloquence. This feeding spoon is made of solid sterling silver and has great detail on the handle. Lunt "Eloquence" is a striking, ornate pattern, perfect for the most elegant affair. This fine sterling baby cup is fashioned from the same pattern, and makes an exquisite gift for baby. It is presented in a blue gift box and wrapped in felt.

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Chris and I had had other plans--our small group meets on Thursday nights, and this past Thursday was the first night of a new 7 week study.  However, we decided it was more important to be there for Hannah Rose so we opted to attend Family Night at her school instead! 

Hannah Rose was very happy to see us there!  She and her mom literally pulled into the parking lot right behind us!  Hannah Rose couldn't wait to get out of the van and run over to give her daddy a hug!

The different classrooms had different activities.  The first activity that Hannah Rose did was arts and crafts.  She made a snowflake out of a paper coffee filter. 

After that, there was a games room that we went into.  Hannah Rose really had fun in this room!  There was an elephant on the carpet that spewed out butterflies and you had to try to catch them.  She was laughing up a storm at this!

There was a movement/music class where she got to make a musical shaker.  (A decorated paper plate folded in half stuffed with beans and stapled shut.)  She even got to put streamers on it!

Then we checked out the book fair where we bought a couple of books:  "Me and My Dad" and a Disney's "Magic Kitchen Cookbook." 

I headed over to the story room where I had volunteered to read a story.  I read "Baby Bear, Baby Bear What do you See?" by Bill Martin and Eric Carle.  I had a small audience, but it made it more intimate!

After I was done reading, I found Hannah Rose in the Cake Walk room.  She won!!!  She got to pick out one of the bigger cakes.  We thought it might be a butter gooey cake, but it wasn't.  It was strawberry.

To finish off the evening's festivities we meandered over to the cafegymitorium where there were refreshments and books for every child (all they had to do was collect four stickers--one sticker from each activity room, of which there were more than four, and they could pick out a free book!).  Red Robin was there, too.  Hannah Rose was completely enthralled with him!  She loves to be around different "characters!"  

Because we had a Winter Storm warning and Friday's weather was supposed to be really really bad, Hannah Rose came home with us Thursday night instead of coming over on Friday.

All in all, it was a good evening.  Hannah Rose had a blast and both Chris and I agree we made the right choice in deciding to go! 

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DOS CUQUETS

Un cuc diu a l'altre:
—Amiguet, d'on véns?
fas molt mala cara;
no m'agrades gens!
—Ai, si tu sabessis!
M'he vist obligat
a marxar de casa...
—Doncs, què t'ha passat?
—El menjar coïa cosa de no dir:
era dins la ceba!
Déu meu, quin patir!
—Pobre amic! A casa
viuràs de primera;
vine a menjar amb mi
dintre la cirera.

.

(Concert de poesia. Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat: 2004).

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I have read a lot of reviews about this book and Eric carle's book in general. This is the first time I have managed to get one in hand and boy! it is beautifully written and illustrated. 2 to 3 lines per page at the most with bold and bright colors catching the eyes.

The first time I read this book to my daughter, she was alarmed to see the caterpillar transform into a butterfly. She kept saying it is not a beautiful butterfly, it was a scary butterfly. After the third, forth read she loved the book and pretty much by-hearted by the fifth time. The illustrations are through pictures spawning the size of the page. Very simple to read. Her favorite page of all is the one where the caterpillar eats through a lot of different foods and ends up having a stomach ache.

Its a fun read and educational at the same time. The caterpillar eats different fruits on different days of the week. Also the number of items he would eat would increase by the count of 1. The pictures on the flap would also demonstrate the number of items. I would read the first one - On Monday, he ate through an apple. Would ask her - What comes after Monday. She would immediately say - On Tuesday, he ate through pears. I would ask - How many pairs? She would say -2 pears. And so on.

She loves the part where the caterpillar eats through a lot of foods, especially her favorites - cake, ice cream, lollipop and water melon. And guess? The caterpillar is not tiny any more, it has transformed into a huge, big, strong caterpillar. He then creates a cocoon and shelters in it for the next 2 weeks.
She asks - Mommy, what is a cocoon. I tell her its like her blanket where she cozily sleeps. Just like that, the caterpillar wraps himself inside the cocoon. Two weeks later, nibbles a hole and voila! Becomes a beautiful butterfly.

My daughter is very fond of, obsessed, fascinated with anything pink and/or princess. The third or forth time we read this book, she wanted to be a butterfly when she grew up. But she wouldn't let go of her pink princess fascination. So the latest is she wants to be a beautiful pretty pink princess butterfly!!

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The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams) - I heard somewhere before that this is a sad story, and from then on I got the impression that it's not something I would want to read on a gloomy day. When I finally took the time to go through it one Tuesday night (I think), I found out that it was indeed a little depressing in some parts. Like a version of The Little Prince but shorter and intended for a younger audience. Nonetheless one cannot help but be captivated by the stuffed rabbit who wished to be Real, and the old horse who knew everything and anything and appeared oh so wise. Brings back memories of old toys kept in a box and left in the corner, toys who used to share my bed and cheer me up whenever I'm blue. I guess people outgrow childhood trinkets at one point of time, whether we like it or not. It's part of the process of growing up. Let's just hope our toys won't come to life and haunt us for neglecting them. Talk about Chukie. Yikes.

Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back (Shel Silverstein) - a story by the author of The Giving Tree, the book is a good exercise for tongue twisters and such because of the long sentences that starts from one idea and ends with another. The story is as weird as story books are allowed to be, but who wouldn't love a lion who shoot hunters instead of getting shot by them? The ending talks about a very important part of growing up as as well - finding your own identity despite the pressures your immediate environment gives. I do hope he found out who he really is. And I wouldn't be surprised if I find him sitting beside me inside a parlor one day, waiting for a much needed pedicure.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle) - a classic counting book, and though few in pages, the simple words will stick to a child's memory as it familiarizes him with numbers. Or maybe I'm just a dork. You have to love it when he transforms into a butterfly though.

The Very Busy Spider (Eric Carle) - another book by Mr. Carle, and as usual, the repetition of words is good practice for young children. The illustrations are rather nice too.

There they are. Story books I should have read when I was three, but only got to read now that I'm twenty-three. Heh, what's twenty years? These books will remain to be classics, and will surely outlive me.

(I'm still looking for Blueberries for Sal. Need to go to another BookSale soon.)

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I've been in a bit of a complete funk pensive mood since the results of my TOPIK test came out 2 weeks ago. After all, when you're aware that Korean fluency is crucial to getting out of the ESL industry in Korea, then learning that your ability (apparently) hasn't improved in a year does take the spring out of one's step. Learning that plently of other people in Korea have had no problems getting work they enjoy regardless of their Korean ability doesn't help either. I could also mention how much I used to just love feeling all superior and holier-than-thou to monolingual newbies and the odd group of Koreans who thought I didn't understand what they were saying, but now can't really pull if off...but you already get the idea, and that's much too honest, yes? So I'd better not.

But then I hung out at my friend's new bachelor pad on Saturday night. The copious drinks certainly helped of course, but somehow the coldness of the evening and the crappy workmanship of whoever built the place especially combined to give me a weird sense of deja vu, almost as if I was a student back in 1996. Considering how much of a wanker pretentious and histrionic I am on a normal day without any of those triggers, then you can imagine how much Korea-specific, 30-something angst I got through that night. But it was a good catharsis in a way, and I left in a drunken buzz barely able to see straight full of ideas, and with a renewed, palpable sense of carpe diem.

Which is an...ahem...roundabout way of apologising for the light blogging while I put some of those ideas into motion (well, this post was intended to be short anyway). But as we all know, I'm rather fond of talking, but not so much doing, so I promise not to mention them again until I actually have done something worth talking about. But great things are afoot I tell you! Last night I even studied Korean, the first time I've done so on a weekend in...maybe this year? Sure, it was technically 1am by the time I finished, and its questionable how much I was learning when I had to rely on my nose hitting the desk to wake me up and finish the chapter of the book...but dammit I did it! Hell yeah!

Now, actually the photo above was the intended subject of today's post (more here if you're into eminently bloggable Benetton ads like that). My daughter Alice, who is 17 months old and half-Korean, is learning a new word every few days, but has a harder time of it than other babies because I only speak English to her and my wife only speaks Korean to her. She seems to be doing okay though, and actually amazed us two days ago by saying 우유 or "Oo-you," the Korean word for milk when my wife gave it to her, and then walking into see me at this computer 2 minutes later and saying "milk" to me.

But when I'm reading her "The wheels on the bus...blah blah blah" book to her....which I might point out do "all day long," and not "all through the town" which blasphemous American versions give...I couldn't help but notice that she would always point at the caucasian baby in one of the windows of the bus (on every page) and say 아기 "Ah-gi" (alas, no "baby" yet), but never point out or say that about the black baby in the seat in front of it. So I did an experiment and found the above image and tested her, and she's still reacting much more strongly to the caucasian baby.

I know, it's simply because Alice never sees any black people, let alone babies. Hell, if you check out my favorite photo of her above from June...big awwwww.....you'll she doesn't even look Korean herself! I did have an African-American acquantence once, but he's long gone, and all my friends are caucasian or Korean, and Koreans tend to have light skins (sometimes toooo light). But I mention this because...well, I'm a geek, and so I:

• Have read lots of my fathers old Psychology Today magazines from the 70s with the odd article about the issues raised when teaching politics to children, and a lot of those would also apply to teaching them about race.
• Am aware of and have done the tests on the internet that prove that even a pinko-liberal in spirit (if not in wallet) socialist like myself is at heart completely racist, sexist and homophobic...probably ageist too (I'll try to find a link for the test - watch this space).
• Actually remember some of what my history teacher said in my last year of high school, back in Macleans College Auckland, 1993. Sure, I may only remember because Miss MacCuish was so completely hot, but we won't go there. One thing she told us about was having parent-teacher meetings with parents of her 13 year-old homeroom classes, and how mum and Dad would say "Our daughter is interested in maths and science and especially biology...we're thinking maybe she might like to be a nurse," and how she would say, nooooo, why not a doctor? The parents weren't evil, but they were only thinking so modestly because their child was a girl.

Naturally the last point is the most important. I'll try to avoid doing the same myself, but I'm already behaving around my child differently because she's a girl. "Well...duh!" I hear many of you say, and sure, but I mean in subconscious ways that only geeks like myself will have read about. It's well known for instance, amongst geeks anyway, that both parents talk much more to baby girls than to boys (although especially mothers), and I doubt anyone will be able to persuade me that that isn't 90% of why women tend to have much better social and language skills (although why women do this is still up in the air, and I'm happy to debate it). I know this, but knowing this doesn't make me some impartial automation immune to it, and as I stare into my baby daughter's eyes I sometimes try to imagine talking as much to her future brother as I do to her...and for the life of me I can't see it. I like talking to my little girl too much.

So, having concerns that my baby daughter doesn't think black babies are, well, babies by no means makes me some multicultural guru at one with nations and creeds, and I'm well aware that merely exposing my daughter to PC childrens' books will not make her one either. But is this where the black=bad/strange/uneasy, white=good/normal/proper associations that that internet test reveals begin? And although these issues can come up anywhere, what can a parent in still all too monocultural Korea do? I'm very interested in how much of an issue readers think this is, if its an issue for you yourselves, and if so what you (and I should) do about it. Is using Eric Carle's books with her, with their orange, purple, brown and white kids, enough for now? When she's older, will that be enough to counter the derogatory images of non-Koreans that the textbooks at Korean schools seem to be full of? Will there ever be a point at which I can not worry so much about what my kid, hopefully kids, is/are learning at school and take it for granted that there's nothing I would object to in it? Or will I have to leave Korea to do that? Points to ponder as I go to bed.

P.S. If you're interested in the origins of popular Korean notions of race, I heartily recommend checking out all the work done on it by Michael Hurt at the Scribblings of the Metropolitician, in my blogroll on the right. Once you're there, click on some of his links in his right-hand sidebar to get started.

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• Setting some of the text to music, or finding fun musical ways to 'sing' the book;
• Building chants and rap from words or phrases from the text (not necessarily in order, or in context)
• Creating music that responds in some way to the images in the books.

Many of the students who have had little prior schooling (due to growing up in war-torn countries or refugee camps) may struggle to remember the alphabet, but can remember whole songs word-perfectly (in English). I want to see if approaching a text through music, using different tactics including mnemonics, assists them in their reading and word recognition. The three teachers have been wonderfully responsive to this idea and by the end of yesterday we had a book for each class. Each one offers some kind of vocabulary and emotional content that is appropriate for that age group.

Books chosen: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (with its wonderful vocab of days of the week, numbers and food); Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? which lists different colours and animals and has a gentle rhythmic repetition to it; and Whoever you are, by Mem Fox, which has a strong affirmative message of diversity and common humanity, as well as some phrases that are crying out to be sung!

In the lessons yesterday I did a lot of work on pulse and rhythm - building an understanding of what these two words describe in music, inventing some fun rhythms from the names of students in the class, and putting these on instruments, then creating structures that required students to be able to alternate performing a rhythm with performing a pulse, moving seamless from one to the other.

With the older students I also tried to create an image of a brain working in two halves. I have no idea what they made of my exaggerated mime of thus concept! But they laughed.... and hopefully some understood. As with last term, I will be repeating my warm-ups over a series of weeks, in order to give the newest students time to make sense of it all and find the work more predictable.

The Upper Primary teacher enjoyed the opportunity to write her own observations of the kinds of responses her students were giving in music. She noted that the two newest students (who have very little English) were included and participating right from the start and added, "It is not as fast or immediate in their classes with me." As I found in my research project last semester, music does seem to be particularly well-suited to offering a clear participant role to students with very little English, and I structure my tasks with this in mind. She also noticed the ways that different students showed small moments of resistance and how these were gradually countered.

I was happy with one of my responses (to a girl in Upper Primary who is very musical, but always wants to do her own thing, rather than play as part of a section):

"I can see that you have lots of music ideas in your head, haven't you?"

She nodded.

"That's wonderful to have so many good ideas. But for now, can you play just the rhythm? So that it is the same as everyone else?" She smiled suddenly, directly at me, and from then on played as a strong member of the section.

As always in the ELS, I don't know exactly what was going on for her. Maybe up until that point, she hadn't understood that she was supposed to play the same as everyone else. Maybe she was bored, and it was too easy for her (very possible, as she is musically pretty on the ball), so she needed a stronger motivation to stay with the section. Maybe she just wanted some acknowledgment from me of her musical offers, and her competence.

在香港難得也懶得見月兒－－又或許正因如此，小C和我都愛讀有關月亮的事。

Eric Carle 那些粗枝大葉的剪貼畫甚是耐看，其中一本Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me 就深得我心。

有誰會不愛呢？

「真想和月亮一起玩......爸爸，請將月亮拿給我！」於是，萬能爸爸搬來比書頁長一倍的梯子，架在比書頁高一倍的山上，再被小C一步一步護送登天，請那好大好大兼好易撕爛的月兒跟自己回家。

小女孩開心極了，那一場抱抱月兒拋拋月兒與月兒共舞，看得跳得我們如癡如醉。

有個媽媽在Amazon批評此書縱壞細路，教人作出無理要求，要風得風，要月得月。其實，男人本就是由目標推動的生物，要他勇往直前擔把梯借個月，又何難之有？反而，請他大爺不接電話不回電郵不見國家元首甚麼事也不想，整個晚上只為女兒將同一個故事說完又說，才真是難過登天。

阿四這個媽媽也暗地裡有一宗投訴，說穿了就是儒家得迂腐得自打嘴巴得可以。幸好我家小文盲未識字，為娘就姑且盡情篡改讀物, 加鹽加醋：

「於是爹爹就將月亮交給小朋友嘞......（哦哦，還有，小朋友就說，謝謝爹爹！爹爹又說，不用客氣！......之後呢，小朋友才可以開始跟月亮玩啊。）」久而久之，小朋友每逢說謝謝後，總不忘立刻自行加句不用客氣......

說回那十五摘下的月兒。你想一想，彎月每天在孩子家裡越縮越小，到初一那天終於消失拜拜了，點收科？

自己買本看看不就知道囉。

The museum also has a library filled with picture books, of course. When we can, we try to go to the storytime there, which is really one of the best around. Megan Lambert, who runs the library uses the Whole Book Approach, which treats the picture book as a piece of art and that books are meant to be read with children not at them. I tried to absorb as much as I could from Megan before I went to do my first Storytime.

At my first storytime, I had a small group of kids and they were interested in the books I had chosen. Pretty early into the reading, though, a boy sitting right in front of me said, "I can't see, I can't see". I thought I'd invite him to help me hold the book but that didn't work because he stood right in front of the book and none of his friends could see.

A few weeks ago, I took a workshop with Megan about the Whole Book Method, focusing on Jewish Literature. During a discussion about children's learning she stated that kids' minds look at the pictures and then need to catch up with what it being read to them. She stated that when a child says I can't see, what they are really saying is "Slow Down". She explained that this is why kids often ask to read a book again. They need to hear it one more time to get it.

I had an Aha!! moment in the workshop. Slowing Down is something I need to work on everyday. For those who don't know me I am a fast talker. Many times my brain and mouth have different plans. My son now corrects me when I use the wrong word for something. I also find myself walking too fast. Why do I need to have a brisk pace to the grocery store with my son following behind? Why don't I just enjoy the walk with him? In terms of storytime, I need...to...speak..slower. The kids have come to storytime because they want to hear me speak. They want to enjoy the story and I need to share it with them.

Any storytelling tips are greatly appreciated.

Eric Carle is one of my favorite children's book authors. This particular one that he wrote is quite popular. I personally think it's a very "rich" book in that there are lots of things a child will learn---fruits, counting, days of the week, evolution of a caterpillar.

So when K took an interest, we would read the book to him very often.  He loved it so much that he used to take it to school and finally the teachers decided to make it the theme for one quarter.

Here is his project from school---